'Nurse bank' campaign shortlisted for healthcare efficiency award

A campaign to recruit nurses onto its staff bank has seen Northampton General Hospital shortlisted for a communications award in the health sector.
Northampton General Hospital nurse bank campaign has been shortlisted for a healthcare efficiency awardNorthampton General Hospital nurse bank campaign has been shortlisted for a healthcare efficiency award
Northampton General Hospital nurse bank campaign has been shortlisted for a healthcare efficiency award

Entrants had to demonstrate innovation in developing and implementing a strategy to support a health care improvement idea, which is to be judged at the HSJ Value in Healthcare Awards.

As a result of the campaign, ‘Join our bank and we'll invest in you,’ registered nurse agency spending reduced from 10.6 per cent in December 2015 to 7.8 per cent in March 2016 and 5.3 per cent in April 2016.

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Sally Watts, NGH head of communications, said: "The campaign was developed to encourage our own workforce to join our in-house staff bank rather than seeking additional shifts via an agency.

“Using feedback from focus groups we devised and delivered a targeted marketing and social medial campaign that highlighted the support and professional development available to bank staff. It promoted the benefits of bank working, including support with nurse revalidation, free clinical skills training and weekly pay for bank shifts.

“Feedback from our ward sisters has been that their ability to deliver high quality, safe patient care has been improved as a result of the higher number of NGH-based registered nurses who now form the majority of our 'nurse bank'. For our patients, this means they receive greater consistency of care that’s aligned to our core values.”

The campaign has previously won a gold award in the Public Service Communications Excellence 2016 awards and was a finalist in the Health Service Journal Awards in the staff engagement category.

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In addition, it has been adopted as a case study by NHS Improvement.

The hospital has also been shortlisted in the 'Obstetrics and Gynaecology category' of the HSJ value awards for a project which has halved the length of time for an emergency gynaecological examination.

Competition winners are set to be announced in May.